Laboratory Studies in Hormone Refractory Prostate Cancer - A Companion Study to CALGB 9480 and 9583

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

• Correlate plasma and urine vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels with survival duration in patients with advanced hormone-refractory adenocarcinoma of the prostate previously enrolled on CALGB-9480.
• Determine whether plasma chromogranin A (CgA) and plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels predict survival duration in these patients.
• Determine whether plasma human Kallikrein 2 (hK2) levels are prognostic for overall survival of these patients.

Secondary

• Determine the prognostic significance of plasma and urine VEGF levels, plasma CgA levels, plasma IL-6 levels, and plasma hK2 levels in relation to overall survival of these patients.
• Correlate plasma VEGF levels with urine VEGF levels in these patients.
• Correlate plasma CgA levels with previously measured serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and plasma VEGF levels in these patients.
• Correlate plasma hK2 levels with PSA changes after treatment with suramin to determine if hK2 may have predictive value, independent or additive to measures of disease response in these patients.
• Correlate plasma hK2 levels with PSA levels in these patients.